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Transcriber's Note:
Variations in spelling, punctuation and the use of hyphens have been
retained. Apparent typographical errors have been corrected.
Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Small capitals have been
replaced by full capitals.
[Illustration: HIS MAJESTY'S HARRIERS.]
THE
SPORTING DICTIONARY,
AND
RURAL REPOSITORY
OF
GENERAL INFORMATION
UPON EVERY SUBJECT APPERTAINING
TO
THE SPORTS OF THE FIELD.
INSCRIBED TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF SANDWICH,
_Master of His Majesty's Stag Hounds_.
BY
WILLIAM TAPLIN,
AUTHOR OF THE GENTLEMAN'S STABLE DIRECTORY.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON.
Printed by Thomas Maiden, Sherbourn-Lane,
FOR VERNOR AND HOOD, LONGMAN AND REES,
J. SCATCHERD, J. WALKER, AND J. HARRIS.
1803.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE
EARL OF SANDWICH,
_MASTER OF HIS MAJESTY's STAG HOUNDS_.
MY LORD,
It is now twenty Years since your Lordship's Appointment to the Head of
his Majesty's Hunting Establishment, during which it has acquired a
Degree of Perfection and Celebrity, hitherto unprecedented in the Annals
of Sporting History. From the impressive Influence of your Lordship's
philanthropic Representations, every Subordinate within the utmost
Limits of your Lordship's Department, has derived an annual Addition, by
which the domestic Comforts of his Family have been most happily
encreased. The Hospitalities of Swinley Lodge[1] are universally known,
and at all Times gratefully recollected, by that Infinity of Sportsmen
who have so repeatedly experienced their salutary Effects.
To have had the inexpressible Happiness of partaking with your Lordship
the Pleasures of the Chase during the Whole of that Period; to have
witnessed your Lordship's humane, polite, and condescending Attention to
various Individuals, upon the most distressing Emergencies; to have been
repeatedly honoured by your Lordship's public Patronage and private
Favor; are Gratifications of so much Magnitude to the Ambition of a
Sportsman, that it is impossible to resist the Temptation of dedicating
to your Lordship, a Work solely appertaining to the SPORTS of the FIELD;
and of publicly soliciting Permission to continue,
With the most unsullied
Respect and Gratitude,
MY LORD,
Your Lordship's obliged
And most obedient Servant,
WILLIAM TAPLIN.
_Sloane-Square,
May 1st, 1803._
[Footnote 1: The official Hunting Residence of the Master of the Stag
Hounds in Windsor Forest.]